Novus Initia Aestatis
by Stormageddan
Summary: Scorpius can't sleep. What happens when he finds himself in the Astronomy late one Summer night? A short one-shot written for the Four Seasons Challenge.


_Author's Note_

_Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters_

_Written for the Four Seasons Challenge issued by __Rosalie'sReven__ge on HPFC Forum. _

_Oh and for those that care, _**_Novus Initia Aestatis_**_ is Latin roughly translated as **The New Beginnings of Summer**_

Scorpius couldn't sleep. In only a couple days fifth year would be over and everyone would go home for the holidays. And aren't the holidays what everyone looks forward to? Those stress-free, relaxing, no-homework days where you can do whatever you want. Well, not Scorpius. He wasn't looking forward to the summer, not one bit.

Scorpius wasn't particularly fond of hot weather, he couldn't understand why anyone would want to sweat that much. He wasn't particularly fond of receiving his OWL results, because no matter how good were, they wouldn't be up to his father's standards. He wasn't particularly fond of how boring the summer became after about a week either. His friends, at least the few he had, were rich enough that they all spent their summers in foreign countries, often times even foreign continents. There were many people Scorpius was on "friendly" terms with, but not hang out over the summer friendly. His father worked all summer and his mother did things with her friends, the house was basically his. He became extremely bored very often in the Summer. So why would he look forward to it?

Frustrated he slid out of bed and slipped into some clothes. He padded through the dark corridors of Hogwarts, not trying too hard to be stealthy. It was late enough that there was probably only one teacher, if any, patrolling, his chances of getting caught were very low.

Scorpius found himself pushing the trapdoor to the Astronomy Tower open, at least there would be wind there. The corridors were stiflingly hot, especially these past couple of days because there had been a heat wave.

Immediately after he opened the trapdoor he saw her, "Lucy Weasley?" Shock laced his voice.

Lucy spun around, recognizing him, she too adopted a shocked expression before she recovered and smiled, or was it a smirk? Scorpius was too far away to tell. "Scorpius Malfoy?"

Scorpius finished climbing into the tower, letting the trapdoor closed with a muffled thump. Then he smirked before walking towards her, "Do you often hang around the Astronomy Tower after midnight? You do know it's reputation, do you not?"

Lucy raised an eyebrow at him, "I could ask you the same thing."

"You could...but you haven't, besides if you think about our reputations, my presence here shouldn't be that surprising." And it was true, Scorpius did have somewhat of a reputation, with his good looks and charming words there were plenty of girls who looked over the Malfoy name. Well, in actuality, most of the girls he "dated" didn't look over his last name. He was the perfect guy to snog for girls going through the teenage rebellious phase, or the girl who liked the thought of fancying a "bad boy". With those excellent starts most of his relationships were short, shallow, and with no emotional attachments. In comparison Lucy was the dear sweet little angel of the Weasley-Potter clan who'd never even dated.

Lucy scowled in response to his earlier statement, "Oh please, don't tell me you think I'm that innocent."

Scorpius raised his eyebrows questioningly before saying, somewhat bitterly, "You don't have to take offense...it's better than having my reputation."

"Oh? And what makes you say that? My cousins scare off practically every chance I've had at dating. I'm fourteen and haven't even had my first kiss."

"So you think it'd be better to have boys throwing themselves at you just to piss off their parents, have a quick stress reliving relationship with no strings attached, or to try to prove their friends that they can tame you, like some sort of dog?"

Lucy cocked her head to the side, "I thought that's what you wanted, its certainly how you act..." She trailed off at the sight of Scorpius's furious expression, realizing it wasn't the best thing to say just a bit too late.

"You think I wanted my love life, if you can even call it that, to turn out this way? No, I didn't," Scorpius gave a humorless laugh, "The first time I kissed a girl, I thought it was a miracle. A girl, and a Ravenclaw one at that, didn't care that I was a Malfoy. But the problem was she actually cared an awful lot. She confessed that she started dating me only piss her parents off, so I broke up with her. That was the start of my reputation. Yes, I could refuse those kind of girls and sometimes I do, but I'm a sixteen, soon to be seventeen. I have needs."

Lucy didn't really know how to respond nor did she know why he told her so much considering they didn't know each other, but then again her declaration had been quite personal as well. Nevertheless she settled for an apology, "I'm sorry for the assumption that I made, I shouldn't have said that."

Scorpius, who had been staring out at what would soon be the sunrise for some time now, turned towards Lucy and gave a small bitter smile, "Don't be, it's what everyone thinks..."

There was a short silence, they were both thinking about what had been said, they'd both told and been told something quite personal.

Lucy, seemingly acting on instinct, raised herself onto her tip toes and gave Scorpius a kiss. It was only a quick brushing of the lips, barely even a kiss.

Scorpius looked surprised, "That was..."

Lucy bit her bottom lip a little, "Yea."

There was a relatively long and consequently awkward silence, both had turn toward the horizon leaning against the ledge. Neither wanted to mention the kiss or the complete and utter lack of chemistry that kiss proved they had. Finally Scorpius turned toward Lucy and smirked before saying, "Friends?"

Lucy gave him a smile filled with relief and more than a little hope, "Sure...owl me?"

If Scorpius was surprised he didn't show it. "Have anything to write with?"

Lucy, who had actually come to the tower to do try and study Astronomy and not with the less-than-moral motive Scorpius had originally accused her of, reached into her bag and ripped a piece of parchment in half. She gave a quill to Scorpius along with one of the ripped halves of parchment. Both scribbled down there addresses before exchanging papers.

"Wow..."

"Yeah," Scorpius agreed, "We live practically around the corner from one another."

Lucy smiled brightly, holding back a laugh. "So would you be willing to sneak around with me, in a completely non-romantic way, and see how long it is till one of my many relatives catches us?"

Scorpius pretended to think before saying, "Why not? It could be fun, wonder what will happened when someone does catch us?"

Lucy smirked, "I'm not sure but if we find out someone followed us and it's too late to turn back, we could always...mess with them a little."

"Of course, love. I'd never pass up that chance." Scorpius smirked, proving that he fully understood her meaning.

Lucy smiled, "Well, since I have a reputation to uphold and sun has started to show itself I better get back to the dorms. Bye, Scorpius." And she walked away.

Scorpius, not one to worry about reputation leaned against the wall and watched the sunrise, thinking about the amazingly awkward conversation he just had. Maybe this summer won't be so boring after all...


End file.
